Gray Wolves Face Growing Threats

July 3, 2000|The New York Times

The federal government is preparing to announce that the gray wolf -- once nearly shot, trapped and poisoned out of existence in the lower 48 states -- is abundant enough in a few places that it no longer needs the protection afforded the country's most endangered species.

The Fish and Wildlife Service plans this month to propose dropping the wolf a notch under the Endangered Species Act, from endangered to threatened, in all but a small part of its range.

The change would mean that, in most areas, wolves that kill livestock or otherwise pose a threat to humans could be chased away or shot by government agents.

It also represents the first step toward eventually turning over management of the species, Canis lupus, in many places to state wildlife agencies.

But some conservation groups say the plan would relax protections too soon and would declare victory before wolves have recolonized broad parts of their old range. Many ranchers and conservative private groups, though, say the laws shielding wolves wrongly limit property owners' rights.

Wildlife officials acknowledge that, in part, the proposed change -- by allowing shooting of livestock raiders -- is intended to assuage opponents of wolf restoration, including ranchers and their allies in Congress.

But they argue the relaxation of rules would be a net benefit for the species by diminishing the tendency of frustrated property owners to resort to illegal, uncontrolled killing of wolves -- sometimes called "shoot, shovel and shut up."

Most significantly, federal scientists said, the proposed change signals their confidence that the wolf's comeback, although limited to less than 5 percent of its former range, constitutes an important ecological success.

They say that the lower 48 states had only about 400 wolves in 1973, when the Endangered Species Act was passed -- almost all of them in Minnesota or Michigan. Now more than 3,500 animals roam parts of eight states.